"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Friday, July 25, 2014

Not Your Father's Republican Party-- Meet Jody Hice, Who Wants A Bazooka In Every Home

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John Birch Society stalwart and former drug addict Paul Broun has widely been considered Congress' most extreme Member. He ran in the May Georgia Republican primary for the open U.S. Senate nomination and lost miserably, failing to even crack 10%. But in his own north central Georgia district, GA-10-- stretching from just east of Atlanta to just west of August and from Athens in the north and Milledgeville in the south-- he's pretty popular. The Democrats didn't bother running anyone against him in 2012. The district has a PVI of R+14 and Obama only managed 36%. When Broun last faced a Democrat, Russell Edwards, in 2010, he beat him 137,262 (67%) to 66,574 (33%)-- despite the fact that Edwards beat Broun in the district's biggest county, Clarke, 63-37%. Broun won every other county. His endorsement of Hated Talk Radio host and wigged out Baptist preacher Jody Hice as his House successor, over Establishment Republican Mike Collins, helped Hice win the race on Tuesday.Presuming Hice wins in November, he will enter Congress as the craziest and most extreme Member, and most observers have remarked that he almost makes lunatics like Broun and Michele Bachmann, both of whom are retiring, look vaguely conventional. The only outside spending in the primary were from 2 gun-nut/domestic terrorism groups who find the NRA "too liberal," Gun Owners of America (who hasn't run ads for anyone in the country but Hice) and the National Association for Gun Rights (whose only other race this cycle was opposing Thad Cochran and supporting Chris McDaniel in Mississippi). Why are the gun worshippers so wild about Hice? Watch the clip up top from his crackpot radio show. "It is my belief that any, any, any, any weapon that our government and law enforcement possesses ought to be allowed for individuals to possess in this country, provided they can afford it." He goes on the explain why people should have cannons and bazookas and missiles. Really. He just got 54% of the vote against a former congressman's son-- not despite his views but because of them. It was a low turnout runoff primary and the nuts came out in force. That's what happens.
With the Republicans still hoping to change their image before the midterms in order to appeal to a broader swath of the population, Hice is having none of it. He regularly lambasts the LGBT community and Muslim-Americans and he insists that gals who want to run for office get permission from their husbands. I suppose if they're not married, they could get permission from a father, brother, uncle or son. And if you don't think there are Republican women in Congress who wouldn't agree with him, you've never come across Virginia Foxx (NC), Diane Black (TN), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Susan Brooks (IN) and Martha Roby (AL).

The Democrat in the race, Ken Dious, has virtually no support and the DCCC is studiously ignoring the race, not lifting a finger to keep this lunatic and sociopath out of Congress. Right Wing Watch has been doing a great job keeping an eye on Hice and making sure that when he tried to make some of his craziest rants disappear-- so independent and plain vanilla conservatives in Georgia wouldn't realize what they are being asked to vote for-- the archives would still exist. A lot of it is about his deranged, hysterical hatred for gay men and women but I kind of took a fancy to the baying at the moon clip:"God is a God of war and he is not playing hide and seek. He has spoken. He has made himself known. It's very difficult for me to look at something like this [blood moons] occurring on Jewish holidays in two consecutive years that it just seems wise to take notice." This freak is probably going to be a Member of the United States Congress. I hope he brings a bazooka or a missile to a Republican caucus meeting on the first blood moon of his term.